We recently hosted a panel on online training with OpenLearning course creators in the Kuala Lumpur office. After the event, I sat down with our panel moderator, who founded the social project TechTarik, to ask her a little bit about her own efforts to localise educational content for a Malaysian audience:
I wish I could say, “Netflix only.” (chuckles). But yeah, that's an ideal day.
Well, I currently operate a hardware incubator in the south of Malaysia, in Johor. It’s the only hardware incubator in Malaysia, and it’s specifically focused on expanding the capability of the Electrical and Electronic (E&E) industry here.
There is a need to incubate research that can be commercialised, be it by a fresh graduate from university who wants to take their final year project into production and become a startup, or a startup out there that already has a hardware-based product and wants to collaborate with bigger manufacturers.
That is one spectrum of Azreena Aziz. Next, in order for all this knowledge to be distributed to more informed Malaysians, I designed an approach called TechTarik which is localizing tech knowledge for Malaysian tastes.
With TechTarik, it's all about the storytelling. It was tough at first for me to explain big data to new audiences (“What is big data?”, “How big is big data?”, and so on). I realised that it's not about the knowledge as much as it is about the approach to “story down” the knowledge. Explaining technology to the masses or even to a target audience is about strategy. It’s about using building blocks to communicate in a way that the audience understands, and for them to be able to apply that knowledge according to their comprehension. That’s TechTarik.
I’ve garnered close to 1,500 followers at this point. And I believe that we’re gaining traction via TVET institutions such as polytechnics and vocational schools who are actually running their courses in Bahasa Malaysia. We’re also gaining traction among government officers who need to educate the rakyat (citizens) about technology. So yeah, it's been a pretty interesting social project. I learn more and more every day about what their interests are, and what sort of topics would be more engaging.
That's another spectrum of Azreena. I run TechTarik in parallel with my role at CREST, because I think that they both complement one another. We need communication to support the kind of technology adoption that I as the CREST programme director am advocating.
Yeah—no. (laughs) I'm... I’m very very embarrassed to say this. I don’t have any background in technology, except for Visual Basic (chuckles). I probably did some big data, but it wasn’t really using technology. It was manual calculation of ANOVA and R regression, you know—I had to remember all of those formulas back then.
My background is in Economics. And in the study of Economics, there was a module called 'Forecasting Technology'—forecasting the economics of future technology. And then I furthered my studies in Psychology. So, I was able to understand how to tailor-make ways of getting different communities to listen and to create a consensus at the same time and get the whole society move moving forward.
What drives me? It's very personal. To be honest, I lived in a family where an average number of our relatives attended university. I am probably among the most fortunate, having gotten a scholarship and then studied things that are really fun.
But when I got back to my hometown, I realised my cousins did not have the same privileges.
So, I studied the gaps. The gaps are that they’re not informed about technology, that they don’t have access to the latest information—and you know, when they run into a problem they’d never go back to Google to find a solution. They’d only go to Google to find things they don't need.
I thought, “If I’m able to close this gap—if I can come up with a solution to teach Malaysians—I'll be able to liberate my family.” It is very personal, I must say.
I have an autistic brother. I have a sister who is a slow learner. And I was living with my single mom. That combination actually pushed me more. I thought, "If I could help them to liberate themselves, then I think I could help the other 32 million people in Malaysia."
I want to see the democratisation of knowledge. I want knowledge to be liberated. I want to see knowledge become more accessible to the masses. In order for this to materialise, the rakyat need to be informed of their avenues, their options. I don’t want people to have to walk 2 - 3 hours just to sit in a physical classroom anymore.
I hope to see more virtual webinars being conducted—online learning is something that I personally vouch for and I really want to see people completing courses while waiting for the bus or the train. I’ve lived in rural Sabah and Sarawak before and I would like to see infrastructure connectivity expanded to the natives so they don't have to travel days just to go to class and stay for the week and then go back to help their families.
Even if you adopt technology, you need to localise it. As a knowledge worker myself, I need to localise and immerse myself in the community—only then can I get them to reach a consensus and move forward with me. That's what I learned in psychology. Like, “Hey, there is a part of human brain that subconsciously listens to you if you actually empathise with their condition!”. I would be friendlier with somebody who actually eats what I eat, and so on. It's all about relationship building.
I am establishing a bigger footprint in the southern region, calling out to other startups and countries that want to look into the ecosystem that we have here in Malaysia. We have a very good relationship with the E&E manufacturers, mechanical manufacturers who are willing to look into creating prototypes for startups and then raising together on Indiegogo. We are collaborating with other accelerators in the world and reaching out to Tokyo and the US to partner up.
At TechTarik, things are getting more exciting. I'm going to moderate a mixed-language session with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture specifically on where technology meets art. We want to create conversations, swap the mindset, and get the ball rolling on reducing the gaps between technology and industry.
If you're already a creator, find your community. There are a lot of other creators in the community who want to develop themselves. You can share your challenges among yourselves, and you don't have to be alone in this—Industry 4.0 is all about collaboration!
Look at other content that has not been tapped. If you dream of being a content creator, do your research. Look into the market audience that you want. It’s a big hurdle that I’m still trying to overcome. There are 32 million citizens in the population of Malaysia: 2.1 million of us are civil servants, and 78.8% of these are Malay. The numbers will tell you what sort of content we need in Malaysia.
When you create content it’s not just about Malaysia, it's also about being global—so it's okay for someone to say “Oh, but I don’t speak English”, because you can use subtitles. It’s underused for education, yet widely used for entertainment. That is something that we should replicate.
It's very important for you guys to keep on looking out for knowledge because if you don't upskill yourself you might not be relevant in the future. Learning is the only constant at this point. And I think you can simply learn anything online right now. Right? Anything.
This is an edited transcript of an audio conversation with Azreena Azizan, progamme director of the CREST Innovation Hub in Johor, Malaysia, which aims to encourage more innovation in the electrical and electronics (E&E) industry. She also started the TechTarik movement—like the drink, 'teh tarik'—as a social experiment in localising technology adoption for Malaysian citizens.
Catch up with Azreena on Twitter at @Azr33na.
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